... Because We're American

Yesterday, I learned the hard way that you have to have coins in order to buy a train ticket. While attempting to find a change machine, I realized that it would take a whole heck of a lot longer to find than it would take to ask for change from one of the vendors there. After waiting in line for about five minutes, I finally got my opportunity to ask, which was foiled by the fact that I don't quite know the words for asking for change yet. I wound up saying "Change, sil-vos-plait?" and she answered with a quick glance-over and a shake of her head. So I bought a Fanta. Orange. For much more than a Fanta is worth, but whatever. I'm drinking it now as I type this.

Today, me and Natalie (my roommate) woke up and met some more people in our group while looking for an open place to get a bite to eat. Almost nothing by the hotel was open since it's Sunday, but we found out it was probably because they were all playing bocce ball in the park. More on the park later. We stopped at a place called Master Burger and with Anna's (program director) help ordered some panini and frites (fries). Some of the panini that came with frites came with them actually in the panini as part of the sandwich. It was exciting and Melissa and Cody came up with the idea of asking them to consider a franchise in Athens. There was another place right next to the Master Burger that had the exact same menu. The lady running it got increasingly irritated as all 15 of us bought from the Master Burger, but Anna told us that we should make them compete for our business since serving us would pretty ensure them a full day's worth of business.

We sat in the park to eat our Master Burger and Eric proceeded to make the path between us and the bocce ball tournament area a walkway as he provided commentary for everyone who walked by. Two old ladies got in the way of one of our pictures and apologized, in English, so we all got excited. I'm pretty sure they were the first American people we've encountered so far. We were all like, "OMG ZOMG! Let's speak English together!" but the ladies passed by and we were forced to turn our attention to the man letting pigeons eating food off his head. Also in the park were a mini-bumper car ring and, Six-Flag-esque game stands, and a kid's playground with a jungle gym that looked like the Eiffel Tower.

Next up was a walk on the beach where we weren't exactly sure if we were allowed to be or not. We slowly made our way back to the hotel. There was a neat place where all of a sudden the shops next of us disappeared and there were holes instead. We looked down into one that read "Trampoline" but it was filled with ropes so we tried another and saw a couple of kids driving around a mini-go cart arena. Our last stop was a hole-in-the-wall convenience-ish store that sold wine for 2.84. One of the shop owners was named Lucifer, for real you guys.We all bought a bottle while Sydney sweet talked the other shop owner with her fluent Frenchness.

A whole day moins heckling! Almost.
Gillian got eyed by some Spanish men who didn't know she spoke Spanish, and the whole group got called out after by some man sitting at a cafe nearby. It wasn't until we got within 100 meters of the hotel that we really got it. There were some men in a car talking and as we walked by, the man in the driver's seat yelled, "YOU SPEAK TOO MUCH!" We were startled, so we stopped to see who was yelling at us when he did it again, "TONE IT DOWN!" We laughed because we thought he was joking but then he just screamed at us, "AHHHH!" Melissa yelled back and we made it to the hotel without any more excitement.

Pour Ce Soir:
Drinking our cheap wine on the beach and listening to some Beyonce on someone's computer to practice for when we go do karaoke.